by Angela White
Young Roscoe nodded happily. “Good. Can we have hot chocolate in the morning with the biscuits?”
Hearing they ate the same thing as the people in the black and white zones helped Mark and Alexa to understand that though it looked better, Roscoe Street was indeed a trap.
Roscoe waved off the guards and took his son home without saying anything else to Alexa or to the travelers who had come from the warehouse to listen and help kill him if it was needed.
Alexa and Mark waited until all the residents were gone before sharing what they’d discovered with their group. It took a while.
Paul listened from a distance, still plotting. He almost had a real plan now. What he needed was some luck.
Chapter Fourteen
Betrayed and Repaid
1
The sound of struggling and curses brought the travelers awake as the squad of soldiers flooded the warehouse, guns drawn and ready to die.
“Do not resist,” Alexa told her men, not killing the soldier who grabbed her by the hair and forced her to her knees. “Plan C.”
“Shut up!” one soldier growled, slapping her.
Mark, still at her side, used his head to bash the soldier in the face. Blood gushed.
“Don’t touch her!”
The other soldiers rushed forward, beating him with their gun butts and boots until Alexa rolled in front of him and glowered with red orbs.
“That’s enough!”
Roscoe’s voice was whining, scared, and clearly not in control. Sensing weakness, the soldiers abused their authority by tripping bound people as they herded them outside, grabbing female asses and slapping slowly moving men.
Alexa, enraged by the treatment, caught Mark’s eye and directed him to where the mapmaker had his supplies spread out. He’d been working on a quick sketch of Lincoln last night and the smell of paint thinner was still in the air.
Alexa glanced to a pile of clothes next and Mark took the hint. While he inched toward the materials, Alexa stuck her foot out and tripped the nearest soldier.
Those closest responded with kicks and hits that drew Alexa’s other men and the travelers to her defense, and bought Mark time to get the small fire going behind his back.
Busy, none of the soldiers thought it odd that he was just standing there instead of trying to help his boss like the others were doing.
Mark joined Alexa as the soldiers retreated, helping her up as best he could with his hands bound. A few seconds later, the smell of smoke drew notice and the soldiers rushed to stomp out the flames that had quickly grown into a nice blaze.
Alexa muttered and her ropes burst into flames that singed her hands as it burnt through. She quickly shed the remains and untied her men. She was leading them toward the cart with their gear stacked on it when they were noticed.
“How did you get—”
Alexa punched the man in the throat and darted by him to grab her Colts.
The travelers knew to get down and stay there as both sides began to fire at each other. In the chaos, Braids was hit in the stomach and fell down screaming.
Spotting a perfect opportunity, Alexa fired three fast shots and took out the three highest ranking me in the room.
“Get out of here!” she shouted. “No bounty today!”
The soldiers, outgunned in only minutes, did as they were told and because of it, half who had come in were alive to flee.
Alexa waited until they were all out and Mark had locked the door before turning to evaluate the damage.
The slave owner was dying, sounding like a pig, and the mapmaker had no face left to speak of. Other than that, everyone was alive.
Alexa reloaded both guns and holstered before going to the door to call help that wouldn’t be able to save Braids.
2
Braids was dead by the time the town doctor arrived. The haggard looking physician was twenty pound too light and thirty years too young to be in charge of an entire city, but he assured Alexa he was the only legal doctor as they walked outside.
“There are hacks in each zone passing out herbs and such, but when Roscoe catches them, they’re banished. We only want legal medical here.”
Alexa didn’t ask any of her questions. All sorts of crazy formulas had come with the war, and she understood the strict rules, but it wouldn’t help her.
“Was there something else you needed?” the doctor asked suddenly with a knowing scowl. “You’re sick, right?”
Alexa held out the hand where she’d been bitten and tolerated the doctor’s touch while he examined it. The fighter in the doorway watched tensely.
Alexa expected him to tell her a rabies shot would help, or that nothing would, and she was surprised when he sighed and glanced to the east.
“They have better doctors, the government. Maybe you should let yourself be taken long enough to get a cure.”
Alexa pulled her hand away, but not rudely. The doctor wasn’t as bad as many of those she’d found since the war.
“No, thank you.” She handed him a small pouch of dust, which he put reluctantly into his pocket.
“I didn’t earn it.”
Alexa nodded toward the city, the outcast’s side. “I saw some of your work. I assume you shouldn’t let Roscoe know you’ve been slipping into the city to treat the people he wants dead.”
Alexa returned to the warehouse and her men, aware of the doctor staring at her in fear. He was worried she would tell, but the only thing she planned to do about it was keep her mouth shut.
3
The entire city of Lincoln showed up to send them off.
That was how it felt and Alexa’s men kept their eyes on the road and their minds on their lessons. Embarrassing their leader right now wouldn’t be good.
Alexa couldn’t have cared less. All she was concerned with at the moment was getting back to where they’d already been. She did not have patience for the speech that some of residents wanted to make, nor for the gifts that a few of them tried to give her.
“We have it covered. Keep what’s yours.”
Alexa led her men from the warehouse and toward the front gate, not surprised to find they now had no guards.
Roscoe was in front of them, waiting at the gate, and Mark moved to Alexa’s side. “Now?”
“The house first,” Alexa denied.
Mark grunted agreement, though he wanted to pull and fire. Alexa was the boss, even if he didn’t always understand her orders.
“I see you’re leaving,” Roscoe commented, odd eye on the thief and the boy still being held. “And you’ve no plans to leave my property here?”
Alexa looked at Edward. “Cut him free.”
“Hey, wait!” the Mayor cried, but Mark stepped in front of him and Roscoe had to complain from a distance.
Brian took the opportunity and fled the city through the gates.
“You can’t do that!” Roscoe shouted. “I need him!”
“You also need closure. I offer that to you now,” Alexa said, going to the thief. She opened the cell door and let him out.
Roscoe viewed the thief with confused hatred.
“Why?” Roscoe’s voice overflowed with a father’s pain as he faced his daughter’s killer. “How could you do it?”
The thief grinned, uncaring. “She was cute. Offered me her candy bar.”
The crowd gasped in horror and Alexa turned to the thief. “Do you have last words?”
“You can’t hand me over!” the thief shouted, coming towards her with his true face finally showing. It was ugly.
“I’ll teach you, bitch!”
Before Alexa could raise a finger, three guns fired and the thief flew backwards, smacking harshly against the street.
Roscoe screamed again, this time in joyous delirium.
Two of her fighters holstered and everyone stared in shock at Brian. He’d stolen the gun while Alexa and the soldiers were fighting.
Brian tipped the barrel towards Alexa in respect and then turned and walked calmly
back into the corn that he’d been watching from.
“Didn’t see that coming,” Edward commented, liking Brian much more than he did Paul.
Alexa stepped to the gate during the chaos.
Confused, her men hurried after, trying not to think about how quickly she’d taken the man’s life.
“Was it because he steals?” Paul asked as the gates clanged shut angrily behind them.
“No,” Alexa answered. “Now be quiet. We’re not done here.”
Any questions the men wanted to ask died on their lips and the group walked toward the corn in dreading silence.
4
As they left Lincoln behind them, a sense of doom settled over the group.
“We won’t see any of them again, will we?” Paul asked. He also felt the gloom.
No one answered him and he didn’t repeat it. That’s why Alexa hadn’t taken their supplies. They needed everything they had and it still wouldn’t be enough.
Am I like that too? Paul questioned himself. Are her men right?
Once again not paying attention where he was going, Paul tripped over his own feet and smacked into the ground.
“Yes, you are,” Alexa answered his previous thought in cold tones. “That’s why you’ll stay.” Alexa pointed to a small shack they were passing. “There.”
Instead of the argument everyone expected, Paul turned that way with a curt tone. “I’ll be here.”
“We’ll stop by for you when we bring word of their kids,” Jacob offered, hoping he was right. It didn’t feel okay to leave the helpless scientist out here alone.
“Let’s make time,” Alexa ordered. She increased their pace until she was almost running and Paul was quickly out of sight.
Paul stayed in the doorway of the decaying shelter for a long time.
The small shack had two rooms and a door, with piles of rubble and dirt. Vines grew through the holes in the roof and animal tracks littered the rotting floor.
He watched Alexa and her chosen men as they faded from view and then kept watching, a small part of him believing she would at least glance over her shoulder to check on him.
She didn’t.
Paul stood there, mind a furious blur of thoughts and emotions. She had left him. He was supposed to wait here like a good boy. When she returned, he would be left again, this time in Lincoln.
“I won’t stand for it,” he muttered, hands clenching into fists. “She can’t leave me behind.”
Paul remained standing, fuming, and the wind growing colder suited his mood. He’d never felt so angry, so in need of revenge. And he would have it.
Paul finally turned to the shack that he now viewed as his temporary holding cell and evaluated it. If he had to be here overnight, there were chores to be done. It was what Alexa would expect and what he needed to do to survive; but instead, he flopped down on the damp ground and continued his fuming. When he decided on a course of action, he would do something. No sense on wasting his time prepping if he wasn’t staying.
5
“Damn it,” Mark swore. “Those guys just won’t quit.”
The fighters came to a stop as Alexa did, all of them scowling at the newest squad of soldiers blocking their path. Positioned between the garbage road and the cornfield, all of the soldiers were pointing guns. The green men were freshly dressed to impress and Alexa didn’t give them a chance to show their virgin skills.
One of them moved toward her, cocky steps saying he wasn’t afraid, and Alexa took personal offense.
“Kill them all!”
Alexa’s men were only a bit surprised and they responded faster than the soldiers, drawing and firing with serious intent. Their mistress had given them license to kill and they were eager.
Alexa drew down on the now running Captain who’d thought she was captured, and pulled the trigger.
The cocky man, Aaron, screamed as the first slug tore through his ear. He jerked down, hands coming up, and her second shot slammed into his hand and through it, taking a finger. Her third shot drilled the back of his ankle and piercing shrieks split the chaos.
Alexa ignored the other soldiers who were stunned into submission by her brutality and fired again, hitting Aaron in the other ankle. He collapsed into a screaming, bleeding ball of remorse.
Alexa stopped with her boots against his face, feeling particularly evil. It was only the steps of her men as they quietly took the soldier’s weapons without further violence that kept her from killing again. No one wanted to draw Alexa’s attention.
Alexa stared down at Aaron, not caring that he’d only been doing his job. “You chose the wrong side,” she judged, pulling the trigger a final time.
Aaron slumped to the dirt with a fresh hole in his chest.
Alexa scanned the captives while reloading, noting her men had killed half a dozen of them in the rush. One each wasn’t nearly good enough for the situation, but she didn’t let them know that. It took time to build the type of skill she needed. What they could do would have to be enough this time around.
Alexa picked out another Captain and stared at him. “Where were you going after grabbing me?”
Captain Wells swallowed nervously. “Into Lincoln, to resupply.”
“And where was I headed?”
He clearly didn’t want to say, but when Alexa’s hand went toward the Colt she’d holstered, he changed his mind. “West. Three of us were supposed to keep you sedated for the trip to the base.”
“And my men?” she asked in a deceptively civil tone. “Killed?”
Wells slowly nodded. “If they wouldn’t join the government. They need men.”
Alexa waved a hand. “Go to Lincoln and tell them what happened here.”
She took the path she’d picked out and her men followed, keeping an eye on the surprised soldiers who clearly weren’t sure if she meant it.
No one told them that she did. The soldiers would figure it out when she hit the cornfield and disappeared from sight. As far as they were concerned, if she could see them, she could shoot them.
6
Alexa ran them for the next hour, getting to the river in less than half the time it had taken to get to the city. Not having to care for anyone else made a huge difference.
Grand Island was small and relatively clean compared to other places they’d been. They walked down Plaza Square and Alexa led them by the tall, apartment building style hospital where she was sure people remained. What type of people, she didn’t know and wasn’t keen to find out, thus the reason for strolling down a main street. A good view of her would convince people to stay hidden.
Alexa stopped in front of a decrepit old building with no readable signs or wording.
Alexa waited, listening, letting her men catch their breath. They were much stronger now than when she’d first picked them up, but still not at her level. She didn’t expect them to be. She’d had decades of training for these moments.
“We’ll be inside for five minutes. Any longer, come in,” Alexa stated as she put Mark and David on sentry duty.
Alexa led the others around the back, to the broken window that she’d spotted. She smashed out the rest of the dust-grimed glass and then hopped inside with four men on her heels.
The bike store smelled bad. Rubber, rot, and a hint of fish odor permeated the building, and all of them pulled their bandanas up over their mouths and noses as they moved through the broken, fallen shelves and piles of molded items. It didn’t appear that anyone had come through here since the war and Alexa set them to gathering what she wanted in large bags that she took from under the register counter. Inner tubes, basic bikes, spare chains-they grabbed everything she told them to, offering small suggestions as they went.
Mark and David kept watch the town and corn uneasily. The far wall of this building was lined with rusting hulks of bikes. Being on wheels would give them a slight advantage if they had to get away from wolves.
Mark took the bags and handed them to David, securing the gear, and then
they spent the next half hour replacing inner tubes and chains on the bikes. The new supplies would be divided and repacked into their kits later.
All solid red, the mountain bikes were sleek and sweet even though they were dull from time.
Alexa swung a leg over, not asking them if they knew how to ride. It was something she assumed everyone knew. “Let’s go.”
The bike ride was pleasant. If not for their mission, it could have been a fast ride on a cool morning. Alexa kept them rolling quickly, but it wasn’t so fast that her men got the impression that she was rushing in to save the kids. In her mind, those captives would have already been transformed. All she wanted to do was eliminate the master of the house. Time would have to heal the rest of this state’s ugly wounds.
Paralleling the swelled river, made it easy to keep track of where they were, but the soggy ground made riding their bikes a challenge in some places.
Alexa led them around most of the worst areas, but also forced them to roll through some of it so that they would have the experience under their belts. She’d used bikes many time in her adventure, but she doubted the same was true of them. It was another skill to be brushed up on.
7
By the time the dim sun began to set, Alexa had them within hours of the house. They stopped and stashed the bikes with fondness, each man hoping she would let them use the quiet wheels for the return trip to Lincoln. They left them under an overturned dumpster in an alley of Grand Island, all hating the way their boots echoed on the cracked concrete. They’d gotten used to being on dirt roads and this wasn’t a welcome change.
The damaged and weathered stores they passed held no signs that people had been through recently, and Alexa made a mental note to make a stop here if it was convenient. There was a lot of gear she could take. Most of it would have to be prepared first, but she had a feeling that after handling the master of the corn, she and her fighters would be ready for a long break.
